1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a protection member for liquid supply unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known liquid supply unit includes an ink cartridge configured to supply ink to an inkjet printer. The inkjet printer (hereinafter simply called “printer”) is one type of a liquid ejection device and is provided as a printing device to eject ink droplets on a printed surface and thereby form an image. The ink cartridge is detachably mounted on a carriage included in the printer.
The ink cartridge has an ink supply port and an air hole arranged to communicate with an ink chamber which is a part containing an ink in the ink cartridge. The ink cartridge is configured to supply ink to a print head equipped on the carriage via the ink supply port while introducing the air through the air hole into the ink chamber.
The ink cartridge in the unused stage prior to attachment to the printer, for example, during market circulation is generally protected by a protection member attached to the ink cartridge. The protection member serves to seal the ink supply port and the air hole air-tightly, in order to prevent the air from flowing into the ink chamber. JP 2006-021476A discloses a cap member having a tape provided to seal the air hole and a seal member provided to seal the ink supply port, as the protection member of the ink cartridge.
In the course of detachment of the protection member from the ink cartridge, it is desirable to release the sealing of the ink supply port after release of the sealing of the air hole. This configuration suppresses the air from being introduced into the ink chamber not via the air hole but via the ink supply port and thereby suppresses the air from being accumulated in a specific area of the ink chamber near to the ink supply port to interfere with the outflow of ink.
The cap member described in JP 2006-021476A is configured to release the engagement of the seal member with the ink cartridge by pulling the tape to be separated from the air hole. This proposed cap member, however, requires the user to pull the tape until release of the engagement of the seal member and is thus likely to have a problem such as tear of the tape in the middle. The proposed cap member also has the complicated configuration by cooperation of the tape with the engagement part of the seal member. There is accordingly still a room for improvement in the configuration of specifying the sequence of releasing the sealing of the air hole and the sealing of the ink supply port in the course of detachment of the protection member from the ink cartridge.